Figure ground

- Hi, I'm William Lidwell,…and this is Universal Principles of Design.…In this movie, Figure-Ground:…How to Get Two Things for the Price of One.…At some point in your life, you've probably…seen an image known as a Rubin vase.…The idea behind a Rubin vase…is that it demonstrates the way…in which the brain makes sense of the world.…Or, rather, tries to make sense of the world.…The Rubin vase is what's known as a "bi-stable image."…Meaning it creates two different stable perceptions:…one of a vase, and one of a pair of faces.…

But the perceptions can only exist one at a time.…In other words, we can see a vase…or the two faces, but not both at once.…So your brain switches back-and-forth.…A modern example of how this effect…can be used in design is the FedEx logo.…Many people are familiar with the logo,…but not everyone sees, at least not consciously,…the white arrow created by the negative…space between the E and the x.…See it?…It's one of those things that,…once you see, you can't un-see.…

The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein…